The possible stalking of Bob Dornan‘s 5-year-old granddaughter at the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival over the weekend is another reminder to never let down one’s guard. A bunch of reminders were in one room last week in Newport Beach – the parents of Samantha Runnion, Polly Klaas, Jessica Lunsford and Elizabeth Smart. Ed Smart, Elizabeth’s father, was a speaker at the annual luncheon Erin Runnion holds in memory of her daughter and to honor those who continue to try to thwart child-abductors. It was tragically surreal to see them all sitting at the same table. As Smart said, “Lois [his wife]and I are part of that club nobody wants to belong to.”

While Smart was effusive in his thanks to those who supported his family, he revealed a disturbing detail I hadn’t heard elsewhere. And it’s nothing to do with the creep who kidnapped then-14-year-old Elizabeth in 2003. This happened just last year. Smart recounted how he was in a congresswoman’s office while she was speaking to another member of congress on the speakerphone. Smart heard the representative say, “Those Smarts almost cost me the election. If they do anything (else), I’m just going to put this bill at the bottom of the pile.”

Smart, obviously, was furious but apparently didn’t let on he’d overheard. A bill ultimately passed Congress and was signed by President Bush. The bill includes provisions for increased sentencing and monitoring of sex offenders, DNA testing in missing-persons cases and a nationwide fingerprint database for people who work with children. But the congressman’s willingness to play politics (I tried, but wasn’t able to track down his name) still rankles Smart. “How could this bill be held hostage (when) so many lives have been threatened?” he asked, incredulously.

Elizabeth, her father said, “has picked up and moved on in a way I never could have thought.” He showed us some family photos, including a 19-year-old Elizabeth in a formal gown and playing the harp.

Seems like the Case of the Housewife Hubby just doesn’t want to be resolved. After numerous delays, his assault-and-battery trial was set to go yesterday. Scott and Kimberly Bryant had flown out from Chicago and were at the Newport Beach courthouse at the appointed hour. Unfortunately, a prosecution witness was not – a medical problem requiring surgery. Unfortunately, the prosecution had failed to notify Scott Bryant’s lawyer, Michael Molfetta, who doesn’t have the shortest fuse. Why make the Bryants fly out for nothing? A prosecutor, Dennis Conway, conceded there had been “some miscommunication.” He also noted the defense had requested several delays in the past.

Judge Glenda Sanders also seemed none too happy and called the lawyers into chambers. Back on the bench she said she had no discretion but to grant a postponement at the D.A.’s request. She reset it for Monday with the admonition, “You’re ordered to be in my court at 9 a.m., not one minute later.” It will be interesting to see whether she keeps this case for herself rather than send it to another courtroom as she usually does.

Mad Max Kennedy, one of the few members of the Minuteman Project who actually lived at the border and who I featured in a recent profile, called to let me know he has left Campo and probably won’t return. His disgust with some in the leadership finally drove him off.

Meanwhile, the other major faction of Minutemen, called the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, is also imploding. Last week, its founder, Chris Simcox, tried to quell a coup by dumping several members of his inner circle. A Simcox statement reads in part: “Regrettably … after reports to national headquarters from state and chapter directors around the country it became clear that a very small group of volunteer administrators within the organization had become ambitious of power, ineffective and distracted from our primary mission, and were in fact determined to attempt to defame and oust the (board of directors and executive director). Local leader reports, intercepted emails and phone calls revealed plans to attempt to install their own Board and to take over the organization.”

As Salon noted, the Simcox statement reads as if it were “copied directly from a press release dictated by Joseph Stalin to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.” Or by Jim Gilchrist in dealing with his own rebellious Minuteman faction.

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